d a
consequent disrelish of the warlike and sanguinary customs of the times.
Yet it was known that the young laird of Blacket House had been engaged
in secret frays between the Johnstones and Crightons; while, for some
purpose not generally known, though, from what we have said, not
difficult to be surmised, he had fought in disguise, and disclaimed the
glory of having hewn off the heads of many Johnstones, whose deaths
might have brought him renown, if not wealth. He had fought from a
spirit of animosity and a thirst of blood that lay deep buried in his
heart, but which, along with its noisome fruits, he had striven to
conceal, from the knowledge he possessed of the pacific disposition of
his friends the Kirconnels, whose good-will he had a motive to cultivate
more powerful than that of wealth or glory. He wished to recommend
himself to the fair Helen, by acquiring the love and esteem of her
father and mother; and he doubted not that, by his own personal
accomplishments--neither few nor unimportant--aided by the advice or
power of parental love and authority, he would succeed in changing in
her the old habitual feelings of ordinary friendship into the higher and
purer sentiments of affection.

And sure it was that no one who ever aimed to acquire a "ladye's love,"
made his attempt with more advantages on his side than Walter Bell of
Blacket House. The gay lover in the old romance, who cried that, with
the advantage of making love in a wood, and by the side of a silver
stream, he would gain the heart of the fairest woman of Christendom,
though his face were as black as the coal slave's, and his lineage no
better than the knave-child's, spoke more of human nature than he
himself perhaps knew. But he spoke of women in the aggregate; and it is
not unlikely that such a woman as fair Helen of Kirconnel had never come
under the trial of his skill. The truth of the statement fell to be
tested by one who, besides the advantages stated by the gay knight,
could boast the consent of a father, old friendship, and a face and a
lineage against which no exception could be taken by the admirers of
graces and genealogy. Bell was aware of the advantages he possessed; but
he could calculate the strength of these better than he could fathom the
mysteries of woman's heart. Although the greater part of his time was
passed at Kirconnel, where he took every opportunity of threading the
mazes of the oak woods, or sitting by the side of the Kirt